Two oil pumping stations belonging to Saudi Aramco were attacked on Tuesday.
The strikes were carried out by Yemen’s Houthis, using drones armed
with explosives. The Houthis credited the attack’s success to help from
people living in Saudi Arabia.
Of the two strikes, only one did “minor” damage to the pumping facility
it hit. The pipeline in the area was reportedly shut down after the
attack, though a fire was reported a few hours later on the pipeline.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih termed it a “cowardly attack” by
“terrorist entities.” He claimed the incident proved the need for Saudi
Arabia to confront such groups militarily.
Yet the Houthi strikes are clearly a response to the Saudi invasion of
Yemen, which was on an entirely different pretext. The Saudi invasion
has taken a lot longer than expected, and as a result the Houthis have
begun developing retaliatory capabilities, in particular with the
makeshift drones.
With regards to the alleged sabotage of the tankers, I go by the report in the “Asia Times”. Of the four tankers involved, two were Saudi flagged, one was UAE flagged, and one was Norwegian flagged. The article shows a picture of the damage to the Norwegian tanker Andrew Victory. It is a significant indentation of the bow. It appears that this ship has run up on and over some solid mass. It does not look to me like the effect of an explosion. One crucial issue is: did this collision happen during daytime or at night? The dent seems serious enough that the captain or whoever was on the bridge at that time must have noticed.
Definitely a “cowardly” attack on an innocent pump that can’t fight back… Who writes this crap for the Saudis, anyway?
Self defense is not terrorism.